Ireland - St Finians' Bay to Waterville.

We were a little late getting going because Nicola slept in - actually one of Bridie's cats (white, mangy, missing parts of its ears, to quote Nicky "Think Stephen King novel") came in through her bedroom window at 4:30am, scaring the life out of her, and it took her a long time to get back to sleep. Bridie's response "They're the devil!"
We planned on driving the southern section of the Ring of Kerry. First stop- Skellig chocolates, about 100ft up the road.

Since the filming of Star Wars on Skellig Michael (the island we can see from our windows) everyone here is pushing Star Wars.

We had a tasting. I don't just mean "Here, have a sample", I mean we tasted milk chocolate and hazelnut, dark chocolate and orange, milk chocolate and champagne and strawberries, dark chocolate and Irish whisky, orange brittle, peppermint brittle and lemon/lime white chocolate. Needless to say we bought some and had a coffee to go.

Its a modern building, situated beautifully with this ruined church visible through the cafe window (it actually sits just behind our apartment)

We drove some very narrow roads until we got to Ballinskelligs.

There's a large bay, bordered on this side by a long sand beach

and McCarthy Castle

Not much to it but stone stairs lead to a higher level with good views of the water and surrounding hills

and further along the beach the Ballinskellig Abbey.

Following a thorough clamber through the castle we

took the footpath to the Priory.

along the Skellig Monks Trail.

The monks from Skellig Michael moved here when they abandoned their island home due to the increasing intensity of the storms.

It must have felt very luxurious to them after the fierce and primitive life out there.

They built a chapel and a living area, cloisters and farm buildings.

But once they left

its just been used as a graveyard.

I came across a volunteer, spraying resin on the 15th century stonework, to try and protect it from the salt, who showed me where a local land owner had blocked off the cloister with a huge slate headstone and made it into a family tomb. Sorry no picture, I was too engrossed in the conversation.

Lots of celtic crosses

some very simple.

There was a map listing the know inhabitants and also the blank headstones.

Clear what the local family surnames are.

Further exploration of the area was discouraged

so we returned to the car.

Now we were on the Ring of Kerry, not the Skellig Ring, so had to contend with the tour buses. In spite of that we stopped at Waterville as we were hungry.

I have been amazed by the hydrangeas here - pink and blue on the same bush, hedges of them.

This one had blue and white flowers on the same stem.

Waterville had an unappealing beach

with a nice walkway and a fair selection of restaurants, accommodation and very touristy souvenir shops (there were 4 buses parked there)

We settled for "The Lobster" (here he is enjoying a Guinness)

They have a very smart system for dealing with diet requirements here. At the bottom of the menu is a list of possible allergies and each is given a number. If that number is next to the menu item, don't order it. We weren't sure about #13; lupin, but discovered its a legume related to peanuts and soya.

Nicola had Colcannon (a traditional Irish dish of onions, potatoes, cabbage and bacon), I had a beet and goat cheese salad with soda bread and we shared the calamari.

Although we hadn't gone as far as we had intended, we decided to turn back as we were both feeling rather sore from yesterdays hike and wanted to take it easy.

We stopped in at an artists co-op, not the usual tourist stuff,

where there were wood and metal sculptures by Seamus Kelly,

ceramics by Anne McBride,

glass by Andrighetto and Miot,

carving by Stephen Henderson,

photography by John Wesson,

and Nicola's favorite, textiles by Nicola Henley.

Look familiar? by Rod Coyne

We popped back to see McCarthy Castle with the tide coming in

and the weather was coming in too.

The Skelligs looked positively ghostly in the mist and rain.

We got home just before the rain got serious and settled down in our nice, warm, dry, home to wine, laundry and reading. Supper was just cheese, crackers and apple as we were still full from lunch.